David Eubank, the leader of the Free Burma Rangers volunteer aid group, said the women and children trucked out were "very hungry and dirty".

They included "many French women", as well as others from Australia, Austria, Germany and Russia, and one woman from Britain, he told AFP.

Human Rights Watch urged the SDF and the US-led coalition supporting it to make protecting civilians a priority.

"Civilians leaving Baghouz is a relief but it should not obscure the fact that this battle appears to have been waged without sufficient consideration to their wellbeing," the New York-based watchdog's counterterrosim director, Nadim Houry said.

"Just because they may be families of ISIS members or sympathised with them does not take away their protected status," he said, using an alternative acronym for IS.